Dead Rising 2 dev defends Off the Record

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 13 April, 2011

E3 reveals will make complaints "go away".

Gamers have labelled Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, the what if? re-imagining of Dead Rising 2 starring Frank West, as a cynical cash-in - but developer Capcom Vancouver reckons all the complaints will cease after E3.

Blue Castle Games co-founder and Off the Record executive producer Jason Leigh defended the game to Eurogamer at Capcom's Captivate event last week, insisting it's worth buying even if you've played Dead Rising 2.

"There might be a possibility of that [cynicism]," Leigh said, "but that's certainly not how we're regarding this game. We're regarding this game as something that is actually very different and very fresh and very new.

"Yes it is Fortune City, it's the Fortune City outbreak, but in this re-envisioning and bringing Frank back into the game, even that first 15 minutes is quite different than it was.

"If fans have any reservations about this, hopefully the stuff we're rolling out in the next several months as we approach the release in the fall, things like E3 which is next, there will be more big announcements and more of those big features being shown off, very quickly people will realise, wow, there's a lot of added value in this game."

Off the Record launches this autumn in shops as a disc-based game – not downloadable content.

It includes tougher enemies, new combo weapons, a new area of Fortune City and a brand new mysterious game mode.

Capcom lifted its embargo on the game yesterday with a flurry of new media, including a debut trailer, below.

"We were very diligent with the trailer to try and say, 'what's different about this game?' Frank West says, 'Everything.'" Leigh continued.

"We're trying to make this a very different game. Fans of Dead Rising 2 will appreciate how different it is and all of the surprises around every single corner you're going to find. And people who haven't played Dead Rising 2 and they're coming to the franchise for the first time, they're getting a true Dead Rising game with this.

"If there's any of that sentiment it will go away quickly as we start rolling out more and more information."

Check out Eurogamer's Dead Rising 2: Off the Record preview for more details.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (22) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • StolenGlory #1 1 year ago

    Frank looks like Jerry Lawler in that vid.

  • metalangel #2 1 year ago

    Who's complaining? I see it as like the GTA episodes. I played through DR2 twice and there are still lots of places I haven't seen yet, the map is huge!

  • Grump #3 1 year ago

    We all thought AC: Brotherhood would be a cynically cash-in and look how awesome that turned out to be.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #4 1 year ago

    Wait, what? I haven't read anything about it but are people complaining that it's the same location again? How often did we see Liberty City in GTA again? Different story in the same location is more than fine with me. It's not like Liberty City or Dead Rising 2 are that small to begin with.

  • phoopipe #5 1 year ago

    Wouldn't care if it was the same game, I missed Frank and his camera.

  • tomjoadsghost #6 1 year ago

    Doesn't make any difference to me at all, The original DR was one of the main reasons i bought a 360 and i love the game pretty much unreservedly but I've never felt the need for a sequel to it.

    I think its great that its there for those who missed it first time around and I'm really not trying to belittle those who have invested in the game as a series but this really does strike me as a great one off game which is rapidly becoming a somewhat lackluster 'franchise', kind of like the katamari of zombie games.

  • Byzanite #7 1 year ago

    He got hair implants?!?

  • camo_kill #8 1 year ago

    'brand new mysterious game mode'

    PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LET IT BE A FREE ROAM MODE!

  • coojam #9 1 year ago

    I'm looking forward to this. Let's be honest, DR2 was really the same game as DR1 with a different story and different layout and most people still enjoyed it just as much.

    All we really want is a new excuse to smash zombies' brains in!

  • WeakOrbit #10 1 year ago

    "And people who haven't played Dead Rising 2 and they're coming to the franchise for the first time, they're getting a true Dead Rising game with this."

    Eh what? So If your going to buy Dead Rising 2 don't bother really its not a True Dead Rising game.

  • makeamazing #11 1 year ago

    Gamers have labelled Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, the what if? re-imagining of Dead Rising 2 starring Frank West, as a cynical cash-in - but developer Capcom Vancouver reckons all the complaints will cease after E3.

    Blue Castle Games co-founder and Off the Record executive producer Jason Leigh defended the game to Eurogamer at Capcom's Captivate event last week, insisting it's worth buying even if you've played Dead Rising 2.

    Can we time travel now :)

    It was announced yesterday, so how can he defend it last week when we only found out about it yesterday? Me is confused :)
    Edited by makeamazing at 13/04/11 @ 13:08

  • Bulbatron #12 1 year ago

    Just to regurgitate what I said after the initial article.

    "I played all through the original Dead Rising (both scenarios) and Dead Rising 2 - Case Zero, but for some reason I just can't bring myself to bother finishing Dead Rising 2. I think it's the thought of possibly dying and having to collect all that Zombrex again. I know what I have would carry over, but even still...

    I can't help thinking this seems rather like a cash-in. Why do a Director's Cut when you can sell the same game twice?"

    To add to that. Not having to keep finding Zombrex might make it worth getting, and if the extra mode is a genuine, un-timed, free-roam mode, then I think I could still be persuaded...

    As others have rightly pointed out. It's just like returning to an old location like Liberty City.

    EDIT: I never had a problem with the first game's save system.
    Edited by Bulbatron at 13/04/11 @ 13:52

  • Darren #13 1 year ago

    This game still strikes me as a bit lazy. Why not bring back Frank West in a totally NEW game, a proper sequel with a different storyline plus all-new areas and enemies rather than just reusing 80% of the second games assets and selling it as a full-priced game?

  • Rack #14 1 year ago

    Blue Castle proactively taking the credit for the inevitable here. This is going to be overpriced tosh but all I have to do is not buy it. I was disappointed that Dead Rising effectively died with them finally caving on the save system but I expected that to have happened sooner. By E3 I won't care at all.

  • Darren #15 1 year ago

    @Grump - AC: Brotherhood is an awesome game simply because AC II was also awesome IMO. The first AC wasn't though. ;)

    I'm currently playing Brotherhood on the PC and utterly loved ACII on the same platform but I'm finding it much of it very familiar and, in all honesty, it feels like ACII 2.5 rather than a fully-developed sequel. It is still very enjoyable though and at £25 it just about qualifies as an expansion pack on the PC which I think is really what the game is (I have no interest whatsoever in the multiplayer).

  • HermitArcader #16 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • tomjoadsghost #17 1 year ago

    I'd like to see them do for 'the howling' what they have already done for 'dawn of the dead'.

    Keep the three day structure, Put frank in a rustic location where the inhabitants are hostile (at best) during daytime, but can be provoked into downright aggression. The majority are werewolves by night, add DR stile psychos as bosses and see where it goes.

    Make them spanish speaking (perhaps hes following up his investigation from DR1) and you can get a whole bunch of RE4 references in there too.

    bad moon rising.

  • DwarfyP #18 1 year ago

    To see complaints about it check any of the videos on GameTrailers. They seem to be ripping it apart as some kind of cash in scheme.
    Personally I can't wait to get it.

  • Mr_Brown #19 1 year ago

    I should be cynical about this...but I absolutely loved DR2 and just adding Frank West and more Dead Rising is enough for me. I cannot see Capcom going wrong with this. They have yet to get it wrong yet with the series.

  • photoboy #20 1 year ago

    This is the problem with this generation of consoles, the amount of detail and complexity in assets and levels is so high that developers just can't make a sequel in a year like they could during the PS2 era. Trouble is, publishers continue to insist upon annual sequels and so ways have to be found to make and ship a game in under a year which means re-using assets and locations to save time.

    I dread to think how bad things are going to get if there's a new generation of consoles that are even more powerful...

  • riseer #21 1 year ago

    Looks like Dan Aykroyd me..

  • Murton #22 1 year ago

    I'm tempted to give the guys the benefit of the doubt here, god knows I shouldn't after the PR fumble that was the DR1 port for PS3 which they touted several times in 2008 but never actually materialised and was then finally denied after the DR2 reveal.

    For this not to be a cynical cash in though it's going to need not only to be sufficiently different in the story department but need new features too. Co-op needs to have a character select for a start so that the player with the best connection can host and still let his friend by Frank West, that's a deal breaker for me. The checkpoint system that's being added has to be optional or at least have a work around, I'd go as far as to say that these "fans" who complained about the save system weren't "fans" of DR but fans of zombies and thought this would be a good game for them, if they can't handle the learning curve shouldn't it be up to them to improve rather than the developer to remove any semblance of risk or challenge from the game?

    Then there's the new mode, they're keeping it under wraps until E3 but personally I'm hoping for some sort of survival mode with Frank and Chuck locked in one area of Fortune City trying to survive for as long as they can against an infinite zombie horde.